Evaluation

12/12/2012

Results from a pair of new international assessments released today show that American kids are holding their own in math, reading and other subjects. In a few cases, they're actually bypassing the rest of the world.

12/7/2012

The NAACP says it is mobilizing volunteers to lobby at the state and local levels for its biggest push to overhaul public education since the 1954 Supreme Court decision that integrated the nation’s classrooms. The historic civil rights organization unveiled a plan Thursday for salvaging U.S. public education. It advocates having children spend more hours and days in school, extending the number of years devoted to school, improving teacher training and preschool programs, and routing a greater share of school funds to the neediest students.

Texas Education Commissioner Michael Williams announced today he's stripping all power from El Paso Independent School District trustees, citing a lack of trust from the community they represent. Williams plans to appoint a five-member board of managers to replace the school district's seven elected trustees, who have come under fire for failing to catch a districtwide cheating scheme devised by former Superintendent Lorenzo Garcia.

Florida's interim education commissioner told worried lawmakers on Thursday that glitches in the first release of scores under the state's new teacher evaluation system are being fixed and that there's no reason to delay its implementation. The Department of Education took down a website showing nearly 97 percent of Florida teachers were rated "effective" or "highly effective" in the last school year within hours of putting it up on Wednesday.

12/5/2012

Grappling with decreased local and state revenue and new, more rigorous learning standards for math and English language arts, Illinois school districts are seeking innovative ways to increase their efficiency as they strive to improve student performance. One system that is making it easier to meet rigorous requirements while saving time for school and district staff is Performance Matters, a web-based solution that provides an integrated platform for student assessment, data management and teacher effectiveness.

12/4/2012

To better serve a portion of the district’s special needs student population, Groton (Conn.) Public Schools has partnered with PresenceLearning, the leader in online speech therapy services for K-12 students. Through this adoption, students in grades 1-5 receive web-based speech-language therapy services from a highly qualified, certified speech-language pathologist (SLP).

11/30/2012

Preliminary data released by the U.S. Department of Education this week shows that Texas — along with five other states — ranks fourth in the nation for its four-year high school graduation rates. With an overall rate of 86 percent in the 2010-11 school year, the state follows Iowa, with 88 percent, and Wisconsin and Vermont, both at 87 percent.

11/20/2012

The National Education Technology Standards (NETS), conceived by the International Society for Technology in Education, provides examples of what the NETS look like in practice. Included in this tool are measurable skills students can be expected to achieve at specified age ranges and content-related examples of activities and tools that build proficiency.

11/16/2012

Texas' new education commissioner Michael Williams said Thursday that he is considering a new system for rating school success and he thinks it should take into account how well districts are closing the achievement gap between Anglo and minority students.

11/13/2012

In delivering A+ Schools' eighth annual report today on academic achievement in the Pittsburgh Public Schools, executive director Carey Harris said it marked the first time she had delivered so much bad news.

SIIA, the Software & Information Industry Association, which runs the annual CODiE Awards Program for education products, is looking for educators and administrators in K12 interested in participating as judges for this year's competition. To sign up and help determine this year's winner and be part of recognizing the education software industry's highest quality products and services, contact Wendy Tanner, Awards Program Coordinator, with questions.

According to a recently released report that links exposure to high-quality preschool programs to reduced crime, at-risk children and those from low-income backgrounds without access to quality early learning are more likely to be involved in violent crime, arrested, or incarcerated down the road.